Sinn Fein knows it needs to change, but it must also keep grassroots onside

Posted by Jim on September 30, 2024

As party gears up for general election in Republic, its differing fortunes on both sides of border are stark. It must now find a way to appeal to fickle electorate in South without alienating its base

Allison Morris

Today at 01:35

Sinn Fein’s strength in harnessing the republican vote was always as an all-island party with unity as its core message.

But the weekend ard fheis has shown that while discussions around Irish unity have grown year on year and are now part of the mainstream political discourse, uniting the two sides of the party — north and south — is proving much more difficult.

It is gearing up for a general election in the Republic, and will be directing resources into achieving its best ever results after a disappointing showing in the local and EU elections earlier this year.

It comes at a difficult time, with the party in a self-reflective mode as politics and priorities among voters change at a rapid pace — on occasion too quickly for policy to keep ahead of.

For the second year running the ard fheis was held in Athlone on the banks of the River Shannon.

The venue is not popular with many of the northern grassroots, who find the location inaccessible due to poor transport links, the expense and limited accommodation.

This may sound like a small issue to complain about, but Sinn Fein members class themselves as activists willing to give up their time when duty calls.

Being priced out of attendance at the ard fheis has left some feeling like the unwanted and uncouth cousins at a posh wedding.

The growth of Sinn Fein has brought a new type of party member, people who are not influenced by the political affiliations of their parents or grandparents.

For the first time Ireland is turning into a three-party state, with a century of dominance by the two civil war parties seemingly at an end.

This growth also attracted people with no attachment to the origins of modern Sinn Fein or the Troubles north of the border.

Sinn Fein’s voter base was originally almost entirely a working class urban electorate, but the rapid growth of the party saw a change.

In the north, demographics have helped fuel its ascendancy — a growing and more youthful nationalist middle class, but with parents or grandparents who would have been from that republican tradition.

They have moved to more affluent areas, taking up key positions in business and law, but taking their culture, sport and politics with them.

In the south, that has not been the case.

People from more traditionally affluent or middle class areas found their children priced out of the property market. The path traditionally followed to home ownership was closed. Foreign property speculators were buying up portfolios of thousands of properties, pushing up the rental market and pricing people out.

Companies like Airbnb, a company built on the quaint idea of making a few pounds by renting an empty room to a tourist, soon became a business empire that has changed the property market for the worse.

This sent those voters looking for an alternative, many finding Sinn Fein.

But how do you create a party of property rights, big business, and still reflect the origins of a socialist and democratic movement with rights and equality as core values?

This, and the rising cost of immigration that has fuelled a small but vocal far-right, has created an angry electorate, and one that has no traditional voter loyalty and will therefore swing with the wind.

Sinn Fein made only small gains in the last election in the Republic despite the opinion polls predicting a landslide only a year ago.

And so this ard fheis was most certainly a more reflective one.